Ugh: Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Monsters Essay

Monsters and Their Role in Society In the beginning, Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden because a talking snake known as Lucifer told them to do very bad things. Lucifer is known as the King of Hell, or one of the first monsters. Ever since biblical times, monsters have been a big part in literature and in a way of shaping our society. In lieu of their textbook definition of “a threatening force”, monsters give people something to fear, becoming a form of antagonist for their stories. This usually results in people rounding up and facing a common foe together. What is commonly overlooked is the need for monsters in a modern world, and even before then. Despite the evil shadow they cast, monsters have their roles to play in stories, ones just as big if not equivalent to the protagonist themselves. Most people do not see that the term “monster” also applies to world of today, as the definition can be applied to things running rampant in the modern world. Truly, monsters are frightening even outside the lore, especially when the threat of one looms so nearby. To begin, monsters are a pivotal part in our society. They are the villain of a story, the support: otherwise, what driving force would the protagonist have? Imagine Beowulf without Grendel, or to use more modern examples, Superman without Lex Luthor. The story would be boring: there would be no climatic battle, where the forces of good conflict with the monster and they clash until one side emerges victorious. This is important especially in the politician career, because one must paint their enemy to look like a monster, a hideous man unworthy of the public’s support. Monster tales also offer a chance for society to reflect upon themselves and their innermost fears. According to Cajsa Baldini, a senior lecturer at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Arizona State University, he would argue that “monsters in literature in general are almost always indicative of things we fear in a sort of collective sense,” (www.researchmatters.asu.edu). The modern world paints so many different things to look like monsters. Using a recent example, the recent outbreak of Ebola could be viewed as a monstrous attack, with the virus being the monster itself. It has the world standing together as one giant protagonist against one threat. In the past, monsters were used as a sort of scare tactic to keep kids from doing things they weren’t supposed to. These monsters, one of the most famous being known as the boogeyman, were made to keep kids in line and maintain order. Looking at the need monsters fulfill today, they have not strayed far. They are needed as the villains of a story to prove that the hero in it can maintain their own order. Following the importance of monsters in our society, monsters are also necessary for bringing people together. As mentioned in the last paragraph, usually a group of people will assemble and rally up against the monsters, such as The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Beowulf, or Marvel’s The Avengers, to use a recent example. Monsters are necessary to bring together a group of people that would otherwise be unknown to each other. In this aspect, monsters bring together people of different cultures, races, and personalities to form an unlikely but effective group. “Fear of the monstrous…

seems impossible, you have to work for it. Dr. Jekyll from the novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson and the speaker of the poem “A Song in the Front Yard,” by Gwendolyn Brooks both picture a totally different life they would like to live.
The personalities of Dr. Jekyll and the speaker of the poem are very similar. They both do the right thing, even though their minds tell them to do something different. Dr. Jekyll was born, “fond of the respect of the wise…

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
People’s choices and actions are always guaranteed to affect others and themselves in a positive or negative way. Mr. Jekyll, a prominent doctor, is well respected and has a good reputation in society. He is also guaranteed an “honourable and distinguished future”, however, as the book progresses, it is discovered that Mr. Jekyll’s unpredictable past is dark and mysterious. His past contains a mixture of good and evil, however the power of evil slowly begins to dominate…

Madee Ellis
Schoen English IV
September 23, 2014
Mr. Hyde the Necessary Monster in Victorian England
Characters driven to extreme decisions because of the implacable and unrelenting
forces of a society or culture demanding conformity and threatening banishment for
nonconformity is an occurrence frequently portrayed in literature. Furthermore, no culture
takes on this oppressive personality quite to the extent of late Victorian English culture. Its
unyielding and…

DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE - SUMMARYINTRODUCTION IN DREAMS
Fanny Stevenson was awakened one night by the cries of her husband, Robert Louis Stevenson. After waking him from his nightmare of monsters, instead of thanking her he yelled, "Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale." This nightmare became the central idea for many of the scenes of the book.
INTRODUCTION ESSAY "THE STRANGE CASE OF Dr. JEKYLL AND Mr. HYDE"
This is not only a good "bogey story", as Stevenson exclaimed…

Brianna Bullock
Mrs. Ragus/Luna
English 10B
28 March 2012
Quote | Response |
“ He was austere with himself, drank gin when he was alone to mortify a taste for vintages, and though he enjoyed the theatre, had not crossed the doors of one for twenty years (pg3.)” | Austere; meaning to given exacting standards of self-restraint. Not a lot of things made Mr. Utterson happy , he liked being a lone and enjoyed being in an inside place not interfering with no one but himself.. |
“ Well, the…

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
The poet says in this poem, that we should be thankful to God for all the multi-colored…

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is an examination of duality. Discuss how Stevenson’s Victorian gothic novella explores this idea through character and setting.
Throughout the novel, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson explores the idea of duality through both the characters and the setting of the novel. Specifically he explores the idea of duality within a person’s personality, not only in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde but also Lanyon and Utterson. The use of Stevenson’s descriptive…

opening chapters of ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’?
Stevenson writes ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ with the intention of showing the reader the duality of man and explores this through the juxtaposition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In this novella, Stevenson also uses the environment and setting of the story to represent the contrast between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
In the opening chapters of ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, the Soho area of Victorian…

A feminist reading of Doris Lessing’s ‘To Room Nineteen’ and ‘Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson using ideas discussed in ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone de Beauvoir.
The concept of Simone de Beauvoir’s myth of women discussed in ‘The Second Sex’ was still very much prevalent in the 1960s when ‘To Room nineteen’ was set and certainly at the time of ‘Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. In the 1960s, in accordance with the second wave of feminism, women were thought…

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